


Start Your Engines

by IFallLikeLeavesAndSnow



Category: Motorcity
Genre: AU, Gen, In a world without Chuck, M/M, at first, preslash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 13:56:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7760410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IFallLikeLeavesAndSnow/pseuds/IFallLikeLeavesAndSnow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The facts are as follows: Mike can't sleep. When Mike can't sleep, Mike goes driving alone. When Mike goes driving alone, bad things happen; but perhaps not this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Start Your Engines

It starts at 3 A.M. in a back alley race. The entire thing was organized by some whack job called the Duke of Detroit, but Mike doesn’t really care about that all that much. Julie would probably say that he shouldn’t be doing this, that he should find a different cure for his insomnia.

Julie isn’t here.

Texas would probably egg him on, Dutch would side with Julie but eventually cave when he noticed all the other rides. Jacob . . . Jacob would be harder. He’d just give Mike a _look_. And okay, so he knows this isn’t exactly healthy, that he needs his rest, needs to relax when he can, or else he’ll burn himself out.

He can’t really bring himself to care.

He _needs_ the rush, needs the feel of it all, needs the thrum of Mutts engine in his bones. The race is going to start soon, and it looks like everyone’s here. The Duke’s limo, which seems totally impractical, a few Mama’s Boys, Foxy, one from the Skylarks, and one sleek black thing from an up and coming group called the Ravens. Rayon probably wasn’t too happy about the name of that particular group, or their penchant for dark cars.

The Duke himself is standing to one side, getting ready to start the race when someone else rolls up. Unlike everyone else here, he’s on a motorcycle. Mike has to take a moment to truly appreciate the bike, because he can tell it took a lot of work. The base is a Kawazaki ZZR 1400 2006 model, and it looks vintage. Then there are the upgrades. It’s very sleek, so the guy must either be or have one hell of a mechanic and engineer. The only truly telltale sign is the line of blue lights that trace down its body. The entire thing is painted cobalt blue, and there are faint traces of gold along it. It’s a gorgeous piece of work, and Mike _would_ like to admire it close up, but for now he has to leave it in the dust.

The Duke nods at the rider of the bike, who is clad in custom, one again blue, biker wear from head to toe, including a helmet.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaalright ladies and gents, with our last racer here, we can get on our way. Today’s course is a simple little run around the block, through the tunnel, across the way, over Deadman’s canyon, right by the superspiders layer, up the 42nd street bridge and then back here. Any questions?

“I uh, I have one” One of the mama’s boys no doubt, but Mike isn’t going to bother looking.

“None? Greeeeeaaat, then we can get this show on the road. Now for all you spectators GET BACK! OW! Because the race begins in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . GOOOO!

Mutt shoots off, turning the corner on a dime and bolting through the tunnel. The beginning of the race is important, if you don’t get to the tunnel in time you’ll get stuck behind the other cars due to the narrow nature of the route. Not impossible to recover from, but annoying. Foxy is at his side, Rayon’s man on the other, which just about cements who the winner will be.

And then the blue rider appears at his side. His eyes widen in shock as the bike inches its way through the narrow gap between his and the Skylarks cars. The rider actually turns and _waves_ to him, before flicking a switch and blasting forward. Mike’s eyes narrow as his mouth slides into a grin.

Oh this’ll be fun.

Deadman’s canyon is a bit of a misnomer, it’s really more of a _really_ big crack.

That spits fire.

There’s a reason for that, something to do with degraded plasma coils and such, according to Jacob. The point is it spits fire, and is very dangerous to jump over. Meaning very very _fun_ , in what the rest of the Burners have coined “Chiltonese”.

The blue rider is in front of him, leaving a trail of neon in his –at least, Mike _assumes_ the rider is a he, going by the build- wake.

The canyon is coming up, and he spies a slight ramp that he can use. He slows down a hair, letting foxy and the Skylark over take him, and then he steps on the gas as he races for the unseen ramp. Well unseen by everyone but him and the blue rider apparently.

He boosts, and catches up to the biker. He rolls down the window, and gives his own little wave. He can’t see the riders face, but he thinks that the other man grins at him. Then they’re in the air, and over the canyon. There’s a flare of light from below, and fire streams up at them. Mutt is protected from far worse things, and he’s already rolled her windows back up, but he’s curious as to how the rider will deal with it.

Easily is the answer. Before the fire can reach him, a shimmering blue dome springs up around him. _Well_ Mike thinks, _that’s a neat little trick, wonder if I can spring that for Mutt and the others_. Then they’re coming down, and the dome flickers out. Though he can’t see, Mike feels like the rider is eying him. A message flickers into view on his dash.

COM REQUEST YES/NO

He thinks about it for all of a second before hitting yes. A blue box pops up, and he’s curious about what it is for a second before it starts to speak. Apparently the rider uses his helmet for his avatar too.

“You’ve got some pretty good moves.” The rider says. Like Mike thought, it’s a guy. The voice isn’t as deep as he’d have thought it would be, but it has a nice ring to it.

“You’re not so bad yourself, that’s a nice bike you’ve got there.”

“Thanks, though I have to say, that muscle car of yours is a beaut.”

“Aww shucks, you’re making me blush, her names Mutt.”

“And yours is?”

“Mike Chilton, what about you?”

There is silence for a few moments and when he speaks again there is a grin in his voice “Win the race, and I’ll tell you.”

Mike doesn’t reply, he just grins, gives a nod, and shuts the channel. Whatever his name is has some serious skill, and he can’t afford any distractions. Besides, he realizes belatedly, they’re already nearing the end of the race.

The Superspiders are a “failed” Kaneco project, in that they cannot reproduce due to too many robotic alterations, and they don’t go out of their way to attack the citizens of Motorcity. Unfortunately they’re successful in just about every other way. They’re fast, strong, clever, and above all deadly. They stay at the edges of the city, away from everyone, and everyone stays away from them. Unless they’re doing it for something stupid, like a bet.

Or a race.

Foxy and the Skylark aren’t terribly far behind, but they’re not going to win unless something really bad happens. He’s been in Superspider territory for a solid ten seconds and nothing bad has happened. Only another thirty or so to go until he’s home free. Blue is beside him, pushing his bike for all it’s worth, and Mike is doing the same with Mutt. Make that twenty seconds, maybe fifteen. They’re almost out of the territory completely when the spiders attack. One of them lands right on Mutt, and suddenly he can’t see anything. Even reinforced biomechanical spiders aren’t built to take the full force of a few tons of steel moving at roughly four hundred miles per hour.

Dutch’s new windshield wipers get a good workout though. In the seconds it takes him to clear his vision, he’s drifted slightly to the left. That’s not so terrible. What is is the fact that the spiders seem hellbent on burying the biker. His blue dome is up again, and sizzling bolts are leaping out of little cannons that seem to have sprung up from nowhere. Despite this however, he’s still getting buried. The spiders that touch his shield get fried, but each time the dome gets a little dimmer. An especially large spider smacks into it and it flickers out entirely. The bike smashes into the tide of Spiders and flips through the air.

The world seems to slow to a crawl, and as the bike and its rider hang suspended in the air, Mike unleashes a salvo of shots from Mutts many many guns. The Spiders get torn to shreds, and even though it burns through Mutt’s reserves like crazy, he thinks it’s worth it. Blue pulls some crazy kind of trick, and manages to land right side up, but it seems like his reserves are gone too, because he doesn’t shoot ahead. Foxy and the Skylark, having ghosted by and used Mike and the rider as shields, are in the lead, and Mike knows there isn’t enough in the tank to win the race _and_ make it home. He sighs, and pulls up next to the rider. They don’t speak, but he does receive a nod of thanks.

They forgo taking the bridge, and break away from the race entirely. Mike lets the rider take lead, and follows him through the city. He doesn’t quite figure it out until they’re almost there, but eventually he realizes that they’re heading towards Antonio’s.

They pull up to the place, which never seems to close, and Mike steps out of Mutt.

Blue parks his bike and turns to meet Mike.

“Hey there” he says

“Thanks” Blue says back “I’d have been toast if it wasn’t for you.”

“Ah it was no big deal.” He says, trying to wave it off.

“It was a pretty big deal to me.”

“So” Mike says, dragging the word out “Like I said, I’m Mike. I know I didn’t win the race, but-”

The rider holds up a hand. Then he taps a segment of his helmet, and the whole thing collapses down into a little ring around his neck. His hair is blond, and incredibly shaggy. Without the helmet there’s no way he’d be able to ride his bike. Mike can’t actually see his eyes, but he can see the grin on the other man’s face.

“The names Chuck.”

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my lovelies how I love them. I have far too many things going on at once but gosh dangit if I'm not determined to do it anyway. I hope you enjoyed, look forward to more. Also posted to my tumblr Muckingthingsup.


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